Undertaking on cycle paths

[Pat "5mph"]

I got a better one: on the cycle path, two guys racing each other, one passes me from the right, the other from the left, simultaneously. Got the fright of my life!
Ever since, I got into the habit of regularly over both my shoulders ... not at once, of course

 

[mjr]

There is no 'correct' side to pass other cyclists on a cycle path*. The only stipulation in the Highway Code is that on a segregated path you stay off the pedestrian side. So the other cyclist is entitled to pass you on the left or right.

Cycle tracks are still highways, so http://highwaycode.info/rule/160 about keeping left and the overtaking rules still apply, really, but don't crash for the sake of keeping left when someone oncoming is determined to keep to their right.

A bell before overtaking someone who hasn't seen you is nice, too.

 

[dim]

Cycle tracks are still highways, so http://highwaycode.info/rule/160 about keeping left and the overtaking rules still apply, really, but don't crash for the sake of keeping left when someone oncoming is determined to keep to their right.

A bell before overtaking someone who hasn't seen you is nice, too.

I have a brass Japanese Crane Bell .... best bell in the world:

pretty useless when people have earphones connected to their iphones

 

[mjr]

pretty useless when people have earphones connected to their iphones

Yeah, doesn't always work but it works better than doing nothing.

 

[hennbell]

The onus is on you as the one doing the overtaking to do it safely, at an appropriate speed and with plenty of space between you and the person you are passing (as the idiot in the OP's case didn't do). Even if the person ahead of you has their ears uncovered, you can't guarantee that they have heard your bell/call - perhaps because of wind noise in their ears, or maybe even because they are deaf.

And how do you know that they aren't taking any notice anyway? Is it because they are just carrying on walking/riding as they are entitled to do? What do you expect them to do - dive out of your way?

I know they are not taking notice because I am 4 feet away shouting and they do nothing. Their dog is cowering trying to get away from me but the owner is completely lost in music.

I do overtake safely at an appropriate speed and distance why would you assume otherwise? And as much as it is my responsibility to negotiate the multi user path safely, the other user has a similar responsibility to pay attention to their surroundings.

 

[Ian H]

And call me a boring pedant if you like, but when did undertaking become a thing? It's all overtaking, isn't it?

I wish I'd said that.

 

[EnPassant]

I wish I'd said that.

Oscar Wilde: I wish I had said that.
James McNeill Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will.
(possibly apocryphal)

And I thought that overtaker / undertaker thing started from those stickers that were on the back of lorries a while back (before the current ones discussed in another thread right now) though I could be utterly wrong.

 

[mjr]

And I thought that overtaker / undertaker thing started from those stickers that were on the back of lorries a while back (before the current ones discussed in another thread right now) though I could be utterly wrong.

Don't worry, some knuckle draggers still have the «undertaker / overtaker» stickers and far far more offensive. At least it helps the police (who have lots of colleagues on bikes) know who to stop and check if possible.

 

[smutchin]

Cycle tracks are still highways, so http://highwaycode.info/rule/160 about keeping left and the overtaking rules still apply, really,

I hadn't really thought about it like that, but it makes sense. It's unenforceable though, especially if you're sharing a path with pedestrians who aren't obliged to stay on any particular side. So de facto there is no correct side - you just have to apply a bit of sense and, as you say, be flexible rather than dogmatic.

 

[smutchin]

I know they are not taking notice because I am 4 feet away shouting and they do nothing.

And what exactly do you expect them to do?

 

[summerdays]

[QUOTE 4497729, member: 9609"]I can't say I have ever been passed on a cycle path (it once happened on the road back in march, an olympian I suspect). But on the very rare times I have been on a cycle path it has amazed me at the lack of keeping-to-the-left discipline, when you see someone coming the other way it seems to be a 50/50 whether they will move left of right.[/QUOTE]
I don't mind that when it's quiet, but when the OP was riding the Bristol and Bath path can be really busy and then it does seem all users stick to the left.

 

[Starchivore]

[QUOTE 4497729, member: 9609"]I can't say I have ever been passed on a cycle path (it once happened on the road back in march, an olympian I suspect). But on the very rare times I have been on a cycle path it has amazed me at the lack of keeping-to-the-left discipline, when you see someone coming the other way it seems to be a 50/50 whether they will move left of right.[/QUOTE]

Yeah it's a lottery. I ran into a guy coming the other way on the right on the cycle path between Morecambe and Lancaster once. I stayed firmly to the left and kept waiting for him to correct himself but he never did and we ran into each other. Then he blamed me which was irritating.

 

[smutchin]

I stayed firmly to the left and kept waiting for him to correct himself but he never did and we ran into each other. Then he blamed me which was irritating.

This goes back to @mjr's point about not crashing for the sake of sticking pigheadedly to the rules. "Waiting for him to correct himself"? Why not call out a warning? Sounds to me like you're both equally to blame.

In such situations, you always have the option of stopping and waiting for the other person to pass. Then you really can blame them if they run into you.

I used to go by the principle that if the other person had moved onto my line, it was up to them to get out of my way, but after a few near misses, I realised it wasn't worth being stubborn about it.

The thing that really puzzles me about pedestrian behaviour on a cycle path is that when there's a group of them taking up the width of the path and I want to get past, they invariably part to the sides, which often entails climbing onto the verge or pressing themselves into a bush. Why don't they go into single file? That would make so much more sense and seems really obvious to me.

 

[mjr]

[QUOTE 4497729, member: 9609"]But on the very rare times I have been on a cycle path it has amazed me at the lack of keeping-to-the-left discipline, when you see someone coming the other way it seems to be a 50/50 whether they will move left of right.[/QUOTE]
I think I've shared the trick I use before, but here it is again: I put my left hand, open, palm forwards and fingers to the left, above the left top corner of my handlebars (so above hoods on drop bars, or above the bend on swept bars). I'm not sure why it works, but it does well over 95% of the time. When it's failed, it's usually on roadside tracks where a nervous/wobbly-looking salmoning* rider is determined to stay as far away from motor traffic as possible, but I did have one near-miss where a roadie is going a bit fast head-down on a quiet track and not looking as he rounded a blind bend in the middle of a narrow 2m-wide section - after how he swerved around the wet track when I rang my bell, I was impressed that he kept the rubber side down!

* salmoning is riding a track on the opposite side to the carriageway for their direction. Often perfectly legitimate, but tends to be riskier IMO because any motorists crossing the track tend to look right more (because that's where the nearest motor vehicles that can hurt them appear from).

 

[Starchivore]

This goes back to @mjr's point about not crashing for the sake of sticking pigheadedly to the rules. "Waiting for him to correct himself"? Why not call out a warning? Sounds to me like you're both equally to blame.

In such situations, you always have the option of stopping and waiting for the other person to pass. Then you really can blame them if they run into you.

I used to go by the principle that if the other person had moved onto my line, it was up to them to get out of my way, but after a few near misses, I realised it wasn't worth being stubborn about it.

.

I know what you mean. But in the incident I had it wasn't stubbornness it was just the difficult thing when you are heading directly for someone and don't know whether to divert or to keep on. He was looking so I thought he would realise he was on the wrong side and move over, so I didn't want to move my own course because I thought I'd then end up moving into his path. I think as I remember I actually moved further to the left but then he moved to his right further to and then we collided.